THIRD
GENERATION DRIVER BURT MYERS IS NWSMT CHAMPIONSHIPThe Myers Family
Works to Continue Family Tradition
by Denise DuPont

On
Saturday, December 11th, Burt Myers was joined by family, friends and fellow
racers to celebrate his Bowman Gray Stadium Track Title, the NASCAR Whelen
All-American Series North Carolina State Championship and the NASCAR Whelen
Southern Modified Tour Championship.

Burt Myers accepted the NSWMT championship trophy, ring and other items that
the NASCAR champions earned by being number one in their series in 2010.
Myers had a dream year in 2010 as he beat the odds and made it three for
three.

Myers was elated as he accepted the Championship knowing that he has
personally placed a part in continuing the Myer’s family racing legacy. “It
is great. Tonight I am getting a little bit of a taste of exactly what we
accomplished and some of the little perks that we get to take advantage of
as a champion. To have the three championships and to be able to come
tonight and experience the banquets is a pretty good experience for us.”

Ensuring both family tradition and racing roots that his family has
established is a goal for Burt Myers and the Myers Family. “We do not quit.
If you are a real racer, you never give up. We race until the checkered flag
falls.”

Going
into the last race the championship was a gamble but the Myers Race team
took the challenge. “We knew that we had a shot at it mathematically. We
also knew that we had so many things that had to go in our favor for it to
happen. We did everything that we had to do by leading every lap and winning
the race. Everything else was just fate and it kind of fell into our hands.
So we had to be good enough to take advantage of the good luck when it fell
in our hands and that was what we did.”

Burt Myers, comes from hard core racing stock. His grandfather, the late
Billy Myers, was one of the pioneer drivers in NASCAR winning track and
state titles himself. He was also the NASCAR National Champion in the
Sportsman division (now the Nationwide Series) in 1955.
His Dad, Gary Myers is a second generation driver that competed on the
Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) tour from 1977 through 1979 with several top
ten finishes. He later became a regular in the Modified ranks.

Retired
from racing Gary Myers now owns the Myers Motorsports team that fields cars
for his sons, Burt and Jason. And there is no one prouder than Gary Myers
when it comes to his racing sons.. “It has been a great year. Both of the
boys have done really great. But Burt has really excelled this year. We
ended up the season on a note that we were not prepared for it just hit us
all on once. And it just has been great.”
And as the saying goes, the family that plays together stays together. And
what better way to stay together than to do it with racing. “Our family we
are at the shop everyday together,” said Gary Myers. “It is just a family
thing and we all enjoy it. We have lived it all our lives. And I hope that
it just continues on.”

The older Myers knew that son Burt had to venture beyond “The Stadium” if he
was going to make a bigger mark in racing history. So he encouraged him to
explore new tracks and racing opportunities. “I tried to get him away from
Bowman Gray as quick as I could to get him on to other tracks. He excelled
on the other tracks really quicker than he did at Bowman Gray. I have always
said that if you can run Bowman Grey, you can run anywhere. But it actually
works both ways. If you run other places, I know you can run Bowman Gray.”

With celebrating over, the Myers family joins the other race teams out there
as they now head home to work and plan for their next race season and the
many challenges that it will bring.

Race Notes:

Did you encourage your sons to race early in
their lives?

Gary Myers
“Both Burt and Jason they were playing ball and doing things like it. As
soon as they were old enough to hang around the shop they were there. They
were both learning things. They were both part of my pit crew for years. And
when they got old enough to start racing their self, they were both ready to
do it. They understood the cars and how it was supposed to be done.”

Giving Thanks to God for the Important People in
His Life

Burt Myers
“There are a couple of people that are very special to me in my heart and
have been a part of my racing career. One is Jim Hunter. He would walk
around with that hat on with the 1948 on it and I would know that my family
was around and racing in 1948 is pretty special to me.”
“The other one is Jeff Riggs from the Riggs family. Any time I needed
anything when I started racing and even to the end of the days that I was
racing Jeff this year. There are so things I could say about Jeff, he was
such a great person.”

Thoughts on 2011 Joint Modified Race at Thompson

Burt Myers
“I am excited about it. Hopefully it will give me a leg up having a little
bit of experience there. The southern field is so stout and the competition
is to the level that is excellent now. You have to be just right. We are
going to go up there and try to use what little information that we have to
try to put us in victory lane.”